Fabiano Aguiar da Silva1 biofaguiar@hotmail.com
Clodoaldo Lopes de Assis2
clodoassis@yahoo.com.br
Ricardo Aguiar da Silva3
raguiar.bio@gmail.com
Vanessa Cardoso Antunes4
vanessanx@yahoo.com.br
Gisele Lessa5
gislessa@yahoo.com.br
Fernando Marques Quintela6
fmquintela@yahoo.com.br
1 Curso de Ciências Biológicas, Faculdades Integradas de Cataguases, Rua Romualdo Menezes, 701, Bairro Menezes, 36773-084, Cataguases, MG, Brasil. 2 Associação Regional de Proteção Ambiental (ARPA - Cataguases), Praça Manoel Inácio Peixoto, 96, Centro, 36770-073, Cataguases, MG, Brasil.
3 Agropecuária Santana do Deserto Ltda. Fazenda Santa Clara, estrada Mar de Espanha s/n, Sossego, Santana do Deserto, MG, Brasil.
4 AMBIOTECH Consultoria, Rua Desembargador Vieira Cavalcanti, 282 A, Curitiba, PR, Brasil
5 Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Museu de Zoologia João Moojen. Vila Gianetti, casa 32, Campus Universitário, 36571-000, Viçosa, MG, Brasil
6 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Bairro Agronomia, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.
Distribution and conservation of the bamboo rat
Kannabateomys amblyonyx (Rodentia, Echimyidae)
in Minas Gerais State, Brazil
Distribuição e conservação do rato-do-bambu Kannabateomys
amblyonyx (Rodentia, Echimyidae) no Estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil
Abstract
This note reports data on occurrence of the echimyid Kannabateomys amblyonyx in Minas Gerais State, southeastern Brazil. Data were obtained from consult to 26 museums, bib-liography search and field sampling. We found nine municipalities with species records, eight within the Atlantic Forest biome and one in the transitional area between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado. Habitats occupied comprised bamboo groves in Montane Stational Semidecidual Forest, Submontane Stational Semidecidual Forest and bamboo patches located in middle of open area, originally covered by Submontane Stational Semidecidual Forest. Potential impacts detected were deforestation, fires, hunting and the presence of livestock and domestic dogs.
Key words: bamboo rat, Atlantic Forest, threats, records.
Resumo
Este trabalho apresenta dados sobre a ocorrência do equimídeo Kannabateomys
am-blyonyx no Estado de Minas Gerais, sudeste do Brasil. Dados foram obtidos a partir de
consultas a 26 museus, pesquisa bibliográfica e de amostragens de campo. Encontramos nove municípios com registros da espécie, sendo oito inseridos no bioma Mata Atlântica e um em área de transição entre Mata Atlântica e Cerrado. Os habitats ocupados compre-enderam bambuzais em Floresta Estacional Semidecidual Montana, Floresta Estacional Semidecidual Submontana e manchas de bambu localizadas em meio a áreas aberta, originalmente coberta por Floresta Estacional Semidecidual Submontana. Os potenciais impactos detectados foram desmatamento, queimadas, caça e presença de gado e cães domésticos.
Introduction
Kannabateomys amblyonyx is a large
echimyid rodent, distributed from southeastern Brazil to southeastern Par-aguay and northern Argentina. It inhab-its coastal Atlantic Forest, inland rain-forests and wet gallery rain-forests, mainly in waterside bamboo groves (Emmons and Feer, 1997). It has nocturnal and arboreal habits, lives in small family groups and defends a territory through vocalization. Kannabateomys
am-blyonyx is a species closely associated
with bamboos, feeds mainly on young shoots and nests in the middle of bam-boo groves (Kierulff et al., 1991; Sil-va, 1993, 2005; Stallings et al., 1994; Oliveira and Bonvicino, 2006; Silva and Vieira, 2006; Silva et al., 2008). In Brazil, records of K. amblyonyx are restricted to the southeast and south-ern States (from Espírito Santo to Rio Grande do Sul) of the Atlantic For-est (Oliveira and Bonvicino, 2006; Bonvicino et al., 2008). In relation to Minas Gerais, the previous authors mentioned a “probable occurrence” of the species in the eastern part of this state. The Livro Vermelho das
Espé-cies da Fauna Ameaçada de Extin-ção de Minas Gerais (Red Book of
Threatened Fauna of Minas Gerais), where K. amblyonyx is listed as vul-nerable (Rylands, 1998), points out three localities with species occur-rence in the state, based on unpub-lished technical reports. In all, con-sistent information is lacking on the localities and habitats of occurrence of this species, which distribution in Minas Gerais State is poorly known. Aiming to contribute to the knowl-edge on the distribution and conser-vation of K. amblyonyx, we present new occurrence sites and summarize the available data on the species dis-tribution, potential threats and habitat occupancy in Minas Gerais.
Material and methods
Data on localities were obtained from field notes and labels from specimens
conserved in museums, bibliography information, field sampling, observa-tions and photographic records. Mam-malian collections of the following institutions were consulted: Univer-sidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (CDMZ-UFMG), Funda-ção Zoobotânica de Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte (FZB-BH), Museu de Ciências Naturais - Pontifícia Uni-versidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (MCN-PUCMG), Museu de Zoologia João Moojen-Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viço-sa (UFV), Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras (UFLA), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto (UFOP), Museu de Biologia Professor Mello Leitão, Vitória (MBML), Uni-versidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória (UFES), Museu de Zoologia-Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salva-dor (UFBA), Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa (UFPB), Univer-sidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz (UESC), Museu de Zoologia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) (ZUEC-MAM), Univer-sidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos (UFSCar), Universidade Es-tadual Paulista, Rio Claro (UNESP), Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (USP), Museu Nacional, Rio de Ja-neiro (MN), Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Nova Xavantina (UNEMAT), Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia (UFG), Universidade de Brasília, Brasília (UNB), Univer-sidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis (UFSC), Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba (UFPR), Museu de História Natural Capão do Imbuia, Curitiba (MCI), Funda-ção Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre (FZB-RS), Museu de Ciências Naturais-Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Porto Alegre (MCNU-ULBRA), Pontifícia Univer-sidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Universidade de Blume-nau, Blumenau (FURB) and Museu Par-aense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG), Belém. Whenever possible, data on geographic coordinates, altitude, habitat features
and potential risks to populations of the occurrence sites were collected.
Results
We identified nine municipalities with
K. amblyonyx records in Minas Gerais
State, eight of them in Atlantic Forest domains and one in a transitional area between Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes, according to IBGE (2009) (Figure 1). Types of records and avail-able data on geographic coordinates, altitude and habitat on each locality are shown in Table 1.
On 7 April 2009 at around 4 p.m., an individual was photographed by RAS (Figure 2) in a locality known as Fazenda Santa Clara (21º53’17”S, 43º10’32”W; 473m a.s.l.), municipal-ity of Santana do Deserto, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009). The individual was photographed on the ground, crossing a short paving stone (ca. 20m long) between two bamboo groves located in the middle of grassland. In this same area, individuals were often sighted with nocturnal activity. This locality was originally covered by Submontane Semidecidual Sta-tional Forest (Veloso et al., 1991), which was partially cleared over the past century for coffee cultivation and livestock. The current physiognomy is characterized by remaining frag-ments in a field matrix, where bamboo groves are found in the middle of open formations and in the inner and border of forest fragments.
On 23 March 2007 an individual was photographed by CLA (Figure 2) in a lo-cality known as Sapecado (21º14’12”S, 42º44’00”W; 771m a.s.l.), municipality of Cataguases, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009). The individual was found around 10 p.m. in a bamboo grove in the inner of a Montane Semidecidual Stational Forest fragment (Veloso et
al., 1991). This area was impacted
by wood removal for timber and coal production and prescribed fires for agriculture and livestock expansion, which ended about 45 years ago. The current principal impacts include the
presence of livestock and domestic dogs in the inner and outer border of fragments and predatory hunting. On 13 January 2010 an individual was donated to FAS in a locality known as Sinimbu (21º20’20”S, 42º45’45”W; 301m a.s.l.), municipality of Cata- guases, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009). According to the donors, the indi-vidual was active in a bamboo grove on the border of a forest fragment around 21h that same night. The specimen, a juvenile male, is depos-ited in the mammalian collection of Museu de Zoologia João Moojen of Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa municipality, Minas Gerais (MZUFV-CM 3328) (Figure 3). The area is characterized as a Submontane Stational Semidecidual Forest frag-ment (Veloso et al., 1991), which had been deforested over the past 70 years for hardwood exploitation and char-coal production.
Table 1. Summary of records of Kannabateomys amblyonyx in Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil (?=data not available). Type of record Locality; municipality Latitude; longitude Altitude Biome Habitat
collected specimen
MCN-M 1726 ?; Rio Piracicaba 19°55’47”S; 43°13’36”W 868 Atlantic Forest Montane Semidecidual Stational Forest collected specimen
CMDZ-UFMG 2290 Usina Hidrelétrica de Fumaça; Mariana ? ? Atlantic Forest ? collected specimen
CMDZ-UFMG 2484 Usina Hidrelétrica de Braúnas; Braúnas ? ? Atlantic Forest ? collected specimen
CMDZ-UFMG 2485 Usina Hidrelétrica de Braúnas; Braúnas ? ? Atlantic Forest ? collected specimen
MZUFV-CM 3328 Sinimbu; Cataguases 21º20’20”S; 42º45’45”W 301 Atlantic Forest
Submontane Semidecidual Stational Forest photography Sapecado; Cataguases 21º14’12”S; 42º44’00”W 771 Atlantic Forest Montane Semidecidual Stational Forest collected specimen
MN 42846 ?; Santana do Deserto ? ? Atlantic Forest ?
photography Fazenda Santa Clara; Santana do Deserto 21º53’17”S; 43º10’32”W 473 Atlantic Forest
bamboo patch in open area, originally
Submontane Semidecidual Stational
Forest photography Usina Hidrelétrica Barra do Braúna; Laranjal 21°23’39”S ; 42°31’01”W 167 Atlantic Forest bamboo patch in open area data compilation
(Rylands 1998) Reserva Peti; São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo ? ? Cerrado transitionAtlantic Forest/ ? data compilation
(Rylands 1998) RPPN Guilman-Amorin; Nova Era ? ? Atlantic Forest ? data compilation
(Rylands 1998) Usina Hidrelétrica de Baú; Ponte Nova ? ? Atlantic Forest ?
Figure 1. Municipalities with records of Kannabateomys amblyonyx in Minas Gerais State.
Full circles indicate the municipalities with records confirmed by collected specimen or pho-tography of living animal while empty circles indicate the localities cited by Rylands (1998).
calization of five specimens, being CMDZ-UFMG 2290 from Usina Hi-drelétrica de Fumaça (Fumaça Power Plant), municipality of Mariana, At-lantic Forest (IBGE, 2010), CDMZ-UFMG 2484 and CDMZ-CDMZ-UFMG 2485 from Usina Hidrelétrica de Braúnas (Braúnas Power Plant), Braúnas mu-nicipality, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009), MN 42846 from Santana do Deserto municipality, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009) and MCN-M 1726 from Rio Piracicaba municipality, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009).
In the consulted bibliography, the only reference for the species oc-currence in Minas Gerais State was found in Livro Vermelho das
Espé-cies da Fauna Ameaçada de Extin-ção de Minas Gerais (Red Book of
Threatened Fauna of Minas Gerais) (Rylands, 1998), where they make mention of three localities: Pri-vate Reserve of Natural Patrimony (RPPN) Guilman-Amorim, munici-pality of Nova Era, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009); Usina Hidrelétrica de Baú, municipality of Ponte Nova, At-lantic Forest (IBGE, 2009); Reserva Peti, municipality of São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo, transitional area be-tween Atlantic Forest and Cerrado (IBGE, 2009). The two first referenc-es are based on unpublished technical reports while the third corresponds to author’s personal observations. No specimen from these localities was found in the consulted collections.
Discussion
Kannabateomys amblyonyx
speci-mens from Minas Gerais had a little representation in the consulted collec-tions, which may be a consequence of at least two main factors. First, this may represent a sub-sampled species, with few captures and efforts applied in bamboo patches (the main habitat occupied by K. amblyonyx) as com-pared to other sampled vegetal for-mations during mammalian surveys. Added to this, once the species feeds exclusively on bamboo stems, twigs Figure 3. Kannabateomys amblyonyx specimen (MZUFV-CM 3328) collected in the
local-ity of Sinimbu, Cataguases municipallocal-ity, Minas Gerais State, southeastern Brazil.
Figure 2. Individuals of Kannabateomys amblyonyx photographed in Minas Gerais state:
(A) locality of Fazenda Santa Clara, Santana do Deserto municipality, R.A. Silva, (B) local-ity of Sinimbu, Cataguases municipallocal-ity, F.A. Silva, (C) locallocal-ity of Sapecado, Cataguases municipality, C.L. Assis.
On 19 November 2010 an indivi-dual was photographed by FAS in an area which belongs to Barra do Braúna Power Plant (21º23’39”S, 42º31’01”W; 167m a.s.l.), munici-pality of Laranjal, Atlantic Forest (IBGE, 2009). The individual was found at 3:55 p.m. in a bamboo grove
in an open area, near to Submontane Semidecidual Stational Forest frag-ment (Veloso et al., 1991). Potential impacts observed in the area included cattle grazing and trampling and the exploitation of bamboo groves by a stick factory.
lo-and leaves (Silva, 2005), it is not cap-tured in baited traps commonly used in small mammal sampling such as
sherman and tomahawk live traps
(Kierulff et al., 1991). Appropriated methods for the species record such as double entry traps installed on ar-tificial bamboo bridges (Kierulff et
al., 1991), active search and listening
efforts (Olmos et al., 1993) are gen-erally not applied in mammalian in-ventories. Second, this may represent a less abundant species, with isolated populations or meta-populations re-stricted to the forest fragments which host bamboo areas with the capacity to provide spatial and feeding resources needed for maintaining such popula-tions. In this context, Rylands (1998) points to a possible genetic constraint due to insularization of populations, which can be even more aggravated due to the species low reproductive fitness (Silva 1993; Oliveira and Bon-vicino, 2006).
Available data from field sampling and stored specimens show the oc-currence of K. amblyonyx, em Minas Gerais, in two forest types (Montane Stational Semidecidual, Submontane Stational Semidecidual) (Veloso et
al., 1991) and bamboo patches
locat-ed in middle of open areas, originally covered by Submontane Stational Semidecidual Forest. The most in-land occurrence site determined in the present study, Reserva Peti, is in-serted in a transitional area between Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes, with the forest formations in the area composed by gallery forest and sec-ondary forest (originally Seasonal Tropical Forest, inland Atlantic For-est) (Paglia et al., 2005). Gallery for-ests represent forest formations in the middle of Cerrado savanna (Ribeiro and Walter, 1998), and it is possible that inward from these transitional areas, the species may occur in gal-lery forest stretches of Cerrado bi-ome. According to Emmons and Feer (1997), K. amblyonyx occurs in wet gallery forests and bamboo patches between fields. The possible
occur-rence of K. amblyonyx in Cerrado physiognomies, however, needs to be elucidated.
It is worth noting that most of the lo-calities with known records comprise unprotected private areas. In some of these localities (Santana do Deserto, Laranjal and Cataguases municipali-ties) potential impacts such as defor-estation, fires, hunting and the pres-ence of livestock and domestic dogs were detected. In order to preserve the K. amblyonyx populations and key habitat features, the establishment of private reserves in these areas is strongly recommended. In this con-text, it is also worth mentioning that a mammalian survey performed in the protected area of Reserva Peti (Paglia
et al., 2005) did not detected the
spe-cies, which was previously reported for this locality by Rylands (1998). We have presented a first approach on the distribution of the bamboo rat
Kannabateomys amblyonyx in Minas
Gerais State. However, more sampling and observation effort is needed for a better understanding on biogeography and ecology of the species in the re-gion, mainly in the limits of Atlantic Forest and adjacent Cerrado areas.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to José Geraldo Soares, João Luiz Novais Devesa, João Paulo Carvalho Pinheiro and Juliana Martins Silva for support in the fieldwork, Wil-liam C. Ramos for the English review, curators, technicians and trainees of all consulted collections.
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Submitted on June 1, 2011 Accepted on January 4, 2012
